The Cannes selection features a strong European presence, six
feature debuts, and films by Valeria Golino, Ulrich Köhler, Bi Gan and Ali
Abbasi

The Un Certain Regard
programme, which was unveiled today in Paris alongside the entirety of the
Official Selection of the 71st
Cannes Film Festival (8-19 May), contains 15 features, a figure that is
likely to increase slightly in the coming days.

The tone is
the same as that found in the official competition, with a huge surge in the new
generations taking part in the rendezvous (a trend that probably also stems from
the fact that certain big names who were unsuccessful candidates for the hunt
for the Palme d’Or refused exposure in Un Certain Regard, instead preferring to
try their luck at other subsequent festivals).

Girl by
Lukas Dhont (Belgium/Netherlands)

Featuring among the films accepted into the programme are three French
feature debuts, with Angel Face by
Vanessa Filho, Little Tickles by duo
Andréa Bescond and Eric Metayer, and Sofia by French-Moroccan director Meyem
Benm’Barek. Also in the running is their fellow countryman Antoine Desrosières
with Sextape.

As expected, Belgium’s Lukas Dhont will be partaking with
his feature debut,Girl(which has been generating quite a buzz since it was presented at
the Les Arcs European Film Festival’s Work-in-Progress in
December).

Border by
Ali Abbasi (Sweden/Denmark)

With Euphoria, her second feature as a director,
Italy’s Valeria Golino will be making a return to Un Certain Regard, where she
revealed her directorial debut (Miele) in 2013.

Europe will also be on show through Border by Danish director of Iranian heritage
Ali Abbasi (popular in the Berlinale Panorama in 2016
with his feature debut, Shelley, and
whose new movie is being executive-produced by Sweden), In My Room by Germany’s Ulrich Köhler (crowned
Best Director at Berlin in 2011 with Sleeping
Sickness) and My Favourite
Fabric by Syria’s Gaya Jiji (a
feature debut produced by France together with Germany and Turkey).

Little
Tickles by Andréa Bescond & Eric Métayer
(France)

Interestingly, European productions have a strong presence left,
right and centre, with The
Harvesters by South Africa’s Etienne Kallos (a feature debut
co-produced by France, Greece, Poland and South Africa), the Argentinian-Spanish
co-production El ángel by Luis
Ortega, the French-Chinese title Long Day’s Journey
Into Night by Bi Gan, Rafiki by Kenya’s Wanuri Kahiu (a movie jointly
staged by South Africa, Kenya, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Norway) and
The Gentle Indifference of the World
by Kazakhstan’s Adilkhan Yerzhanov (co-produced by
France).

An Indian film rounds off the current Un Certain Regard line-up, in which
North American filmmakers are especially conspicuous by their absence.